Big Sky National Monument - Stonewall, TX

Lyndon Johnson is not a president often associated with the Antiquities Act. In his term, he enlarged four existing national monuments and established another two, most of which he did only at the behest of others. The exception to this is Big Sky National Monument. Set close to his ranch in Stonewall,Texas, Lyndon used to load VIPs into the back of his Lincoln Continental and go careening across the open prairies that would one day become the monument. He’s quoted saying that he loved seeing the faces of those unfamiliar with the Texas sky, crushed under the weight of it. And admittedly, there is something magical about the skies over the Lone Star State, something countless have commented upon. It’s in every song and story the state has to offer, the wide panorama of open sky that ensures storms can never sneak up on you, that teaches you from an early age how small you are in the world. It’s only fitting that a state obsessed with size would be blanketed by an equally big sky. Previ

The Texas Giants


Coronado was the first European to encounter the Giants of the North American continent. He first witnessed them on the plains of Texas, snatching up fistfuls of buffalo for their dinner. He attempted to attack and slay a Giant on three occasions, each unsuccessful, and by the end of his third assault he had lost nearly forty men. Given that the Giants offered no extended retaliation, Coronado later wrote to the Crown that the “are inconsequential obstacles, stunted with minds like cattle and sheep. They should be treated as legged mountains except where they stand in the way of Spanish march.”

The Giants have inspired everything from the writings of Jonathan Swift to Big Tex, the massive animatronic cowboy who greets visitors to each year’s State Fair. Famously Big Tex was modeled off of a particularly friendly Giant named Bubba who lived outside Amarillo and died in 1992.

Today, the Giants are scattered and much reduced in number, mainly due to accidents. The rise of fracking has been linked to incidents of Giants falling into sinkholes, an accident that, while not fatal, has led to countless Giants becoming trapped up to their necks and shoulders in the surrounding landscape. A few trapped, emaciated Giants have become tourist attractions around Wink. The remaining Giants have been relocated to a reservation in the southern half of Pecos County.


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